Heating technologies can include both radiative, conductive and convective processes. Radiative heating processes can include, but are not limited to, heating by infrared (“IR”) or thermal radiation and heating by absorption of microwave radiation. IR radiation can range in frequency from about 300 GHz in the far infrared up to about 400 THz in the near infrared. Microwave radiation can range in frequency from about 300 MHz in the meter wavelength range, corresponding generally to the upper frequency limit of the radio spectrum, to about 300 GHz in the millimeter wave range, corresponding generally to the lower frequency limit of the far infrared spectrum. Microwave oven technology, for example, can typically utilize electromagnetic (“EM”) radiation, or waves with frequencies, at or in the range of about 915 MHz to about 2450 MHz (e.g., 2.45 GHz), which can be absorbed by many materials and can be used for heating foods and other substances. (See, e.g., Reference 1).
When utilizing microwave and other heating technologies (e.g., ovens), an object or body can be heated for a set time or duration, and direct temperature monitoring of the heated object itself may not be conducted. In some examples, a microwave or oven-compatible temperature probe can be inserted into an object for interior temperature measurements, but both microwave and thermal radiation processes can heat materials non-uniformly, and a single thermometer or probe measuring the temperature at a single point in space may not provide a suitable temperature measurement for all applications, particularly where there can be substantial temperature sensitivity. Monitoring of a global radio frequency (“RF”) power deposition can be an aspect of patient safety in magnetic resonance (“MR”) techniques, including magnetic resonance imagining (“MM”), and in other applications where patients, users, or other persons or bodies can be exposed to radio frequency radiation. For example, global RF power deposition can be estimated in phantom targets and subjects in vivo, for single and multiple transmit MM systems. (See, e.g., Reference 1). Generally, these RF power monitoring systems measure the forward (e.g., input) and reflected power, and calculate a net injected or deposited RF power into the patient, or other body, based on these factors.
In practice, however, losses can occur in one or more of the transmit chain electronics, coil structure, and radiated energy, such that estimates based on the forward power input may not represent the actual dose or RF energy absorbed. Other factors can also reduce the accuracy of the estimated amount of power that can be deposited within the target object, such as variable coupling of the target body to the RF coil.
Thus, there can be a need for an exemplary system, method and computer-accessible medium for providing magnetic resonance temperature measurement for heating applications, which can overcome at least some of the problems described herein above.